Serenity (Spoilers)

[enoden]

[Note: There are spoilers in this post - if you don't want to learn stuff about the film before you see it, don't read this. ]

I just watched the film yesterday - I liked it, but was annoyed with a couple things; first, that Wash and Shepard died. I mean, come on! There are ways to get the tension rising without killing off main characters (they also happen to be two of my favorite characters ).

Also, River was way different from Firefly. In Firefly, she was mostly harmless, just insane. I liked her better that way, personally, although a cute assassin that can kill you effortlessly is pretty awesome as well.

Anyone else have any thoughts on the film?

[radegrasan]

I liked the improvements they made in the film. Like for instance in the series the Alliance soldiers during the Unification War wore these uniforms that looked like nazi's which I thought was just plain ridiculous, and then the Alliance sailors wore those ridiculous sailor outfits. Also, the Feds in the series practically came straight out of Starship Troopers.

In the movie the Alliance guys have better uniforms, which look more like the ones they have in Battlestar Galactica (which is a very good thing!), the marines have way cooler uniforms and I also like how they replaced the Alliance Citadel ships by 'normal' futuristic fleetships, which is way better.

But then again I think that the movie has lost that which made Firefly unique, namely how it mixes western and sci-fi together.

Also, I wonder why Mal's browncoat has a leather patch on the left shoulder all of a sudden in the movie.

[Jove Gadria]

I figured there were changes because when the series was cancelled, they had to tear everything down and that was that. Then make it all again. Plus the film was meant to be all big and epic. I kinda like Serenity in that bluish shade for some reason. It matched the atmosphere of how the film was going to be more 'all or nothing' near the end. They had to be more than the crew that did jobs.

Plus this was the last opportunity they had to do this. So they went out and made it all awesome. Killing off Book and Wash sucked.. but I guess Joss wasn't gonna get a chance to ever kill anyone off lol. And killing Wash did make a really big impact. Like you'd always remember that moment. It sucks and makes some small sense at the same time lol.

Still don't mean I'd rather Wash were dead. D: Or Book for that matter.

[enoden]

radegrasan said:

But then again I think that the movie has lost that which made Firefly unique, namely how it mixes western and sci-fi together.

I agree.
Furthermore, one of the things I was disappointed about in the movie was the lack of the more light-hearted quips and humor in Firefly.

I mean, most of Serenity was, for me, rather serious, whereas in Firefly, even during the witch-burning scene, there was a lot of humor (I.E. "She's our witch!")

jove said:

Plus the film was meant to be all big and epic. I kinda like Serenity in that bluish shade for some reason. It matched the atmosphere of how the film was going to be more 'all or nothing' near the end. They had to be more than the crew that did jobs.

True - if all they did was petty robbery and what-not, it would get old quickly, and wouldn't make a good movie.

That's an interesting thought:

Do you all think that the changes were necessary to make the transition between a tv episode and a full-length movie?

[Jove Gadria]

There were some light-hearted quips, but it wasn't really a light-hearted plot lol. It kinda had that horror/scifi aspect with the Reavers. And it wouldn't've made much of an impact if it was a bunch of jokes. It was all the serious development Joss never got to show little by little in the series.. so I suppose he had to like.. cram it all into the film. And unfortunately had to leave a lot out. D: Seeing as a movie isn't meant to be thaaat long. x:

I dunno. I kinda liked the film for all it's 'we might all die and this is going to be tragic as hell'-ness. The series was great for other reasons-- but it was a series and not a film. So there didn't have to be all of that Alliance creating Reavers bit all thrown in.

I think the changes were necessary. Some of them were probably things they never got to do in the series, or wanted to do but decided to go with this. Something like that. And half the time you don't really notice any of it anyway because I don't know about anyone else, but I was too busy all wrapped up in the story and snuggled up to the crew being badass again. x;

[enoden]

Yeah, the plot was definitely much heavier.

And I seem to recall reading somewhere that Joss based Serenity off the plot summary for the intended second season of Firefly - which, if true, is rather interesting.

I dunno. I kinda liked the film for all it's 'we might all die and this is going to be tragic as hell'-ness. The series was great for other reasons-- but it was a series and not a film. So there didn't have to be all of that Alliance creating Reavers bit all thrown in.

Also another good point; the series was good for different reasons than the movie was good.

They didn't need to "up the ante", as it were, for the individual episodes, because tension wasn't what the audience was looking for.

I think audience expectation is completely different when they're coming into a movie, as apposed to watching an episode of a TV show.

[phantomseige]

The way I always explain my feelings towards Serenity is thus:

Firefly and Serenity are different animals. Firefly was a (fairly) unique space-opera style western, with elements of science-fiction to inform the otherwise drama-driven and western-style storyline.

Serenity, on the other hand, took science-fiction to heart, and while the world remained somewhat space-opera'ey, it is first and foremost about the science in the world (specifically - the origins of the Reavers).

Both are good, but their merits lay in completely different camps. In my opinion, I much prefer Firefly because I'm a sucker for character-driven drama, whereas I have a couple friends who prefer Serenity for the story and reveal-driven plotline and the increased influence of the science-fiction elements of the world.

As for Wash and Book dying, I don't mind much, but to quote my professor on the issue of dark endings/characters dying/etc: "You have to earn it," and those two were so established in the canon that it was hard to do so. I personally believe Serenity earned Wash's death. Book's was...a little too sudden to say the same, but hey.

I just wish Firefly had gotten the second season. Serenity WAS based on parts of the season 2 storyline, and it'd have been really interesting to see how things would have been styled and paced had they the dozen or so 42 minute episodes, instead of one two-hour chunk of film.